


Dolphin-Borne

by Carmarthen



Category: Dinotopia - James Gurney, Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crack, Dinosaurs, Gen, Illustrated, M/M, Pre-Slash, Pterosaurs, Skybaxes, giant azhdarchids are the best animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-20
Updated: 2011-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-21 13:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/225923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmarthen/pseuds/Carmarthen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Esca and Cottia and their Skybax mounts Nemesa and Aethra find a shipwrecked Roman soldier on the beach. The soldier, for his part, is somewhat distressed to wake up with a giant pterosaur sticking her curious beak into his face. The Eagle/The Eagle of the Ninth fusion with Dinotopia. (Very faintly slashy gen.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dolphin-Borne

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sineala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/gifts).



> This story is 100% Sineala’s fault. Thanks to Celzmccelz for the Ancient Greek and Sineala and thisprettywren for the Latin; and to #eagle for cheerleading and answering silly questions as I wrote.
> 
> [This is a Skybax and rider](http://anonym.to/?http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Eiwce13X738/TDTNXZDToMI/AAAAAAAAIg0/7CJbNV6kKvc/s400/Skybax+Rider.sm.jpg), although I am imagining and describing mine slightly differently.
> 
> Here is a [map of Dinotopia](http://www.cityofmists.com/Realm/Map.html). As this is the second century and not the nineteenth, I’ve changed some of the placenames to fit into a more Greek-influenced Dinotopia.
> 
> Pteros is the same; I have renamed Prosperine Proserpinê, as it’s a plausible original name, and I’ve renamed Warmwater Bay as Kolpos Delphinôn, ‘Bay of Dolphins.’ The “place of the tyrant lizards” is Rainy Basin. Dinotopia itself is using a more Greek form of the word, Deinotopos, which still means “terrible place,” or “wondrous place,” depending on your point of view (I have no idea where the accent should go, so I dropped it. And it may be wrong, but Dinotopian Greek is different, so whatever).
> 
> OveralI I took a slightly loose approach to _Dinotopia_ canon, because as awesome as Dinotopia is, the worldbuilding is...flimsy. Also, I only had access to the first book. More on that in the notes.
> 
> There may very well be more Adventures With Dinosaurs at a later date (How does Marcus settle into Dinotopian society? What’s up with Cottia and Liathan? Did Esca’s parents really get eaten by T. rexes? SO MANY QUESTIONS), but this at least temporarily got the Esca-as-Skybax-Rider impulse out of my system.

_Dies lunae Ides Martius DCCCLXXXVIII a.u.c. (15 March, AD 135)_

It was a good day for a training flight, with fine weather and favorable winds along the shore of the shallow waters of Kolpos Delphinôn, stretching between the islands. Their Skybaxes Nemesa and Aethra had found good updrafts that allowed them to glide lazily most of the way from Pteros, hardly flapping at all, their great wings spread wide and taut against the wind as they soared. Far below them, if he leaned to the side a little to see past the muscular length of Nemesa’s downy neck, Esca could see the coastline laid out in rolling grassy hills and sandy dunes, to the north the white-columned buildings of Proserpinê catching the afternoon sun.

Nearby, from Aethra’s back, Cottia shouted something inaudible over the rush of wind past Esca’s ears, pointing down below them to the beach. Esca leaned further to see, and Nemesa tilted her great head as well. Still unused to bearing a rider, she banked and Esca rolled to one side, stomach dropping as he slammed into the high side of the saddle hard enough to bruise, only the saddle and his feet in the stirrups keeping him from sliding off Nemesa’s back to the waters far below.

Nemesa trilled apologetically, the sound rumbling through her chest so Esca could feel it more than hear it. As his heart slowed its frantic hammering, he squinted down at the beach. Remains of a fresh shipwreck, it looked like—unusual, so far into the bay. He tapped the side of Nemesa’s neck in the pattern that meant “fly lower,” and she spiraled down, the wind of her flapping wings strong enough to steal Esca’s breath for a moment. Cottia and Aethra followed.

There was a man on the beach. Nemesa and Aethra did not have to be told to land; Esca held on tightly and squeezed his eyes and mouth shut as they neared the ground and Nemesa tucked her feet and bent her wings to land on all four sets of claws, stirring up a cloud of sand.

Nemesa crouched to let Esca down, trilling apology again. He still had only the basic sense of the Skybax language; it didn’t have grammar like Greek or Saurian, quite, although usually he and Nemesa understood each other well enough. He knew she was sorry for the rough landing, so he patted her on the fore-edge of one wing before turning to the man on the beach.

Cottia slid down from Aethra’s back, and the two Skybaxes carried on a soft conversation as Esca and Cottia bent over the man who had come on dolphinback, as Esca’s own great-grandfather had once. He lay facedown in a patch of little white dune-flowers, his head pillowed on his arm as if asleep. Blood crusted in his short, dark hair and scabbed his arms, and what flesh he had exposed bore livid bruises, but Esca thought he did not look too bad, for someone who had survived a shipwreck. Pale and battered, but not seriously injured, at least not visibly.

“Stop staring and help me turn him over,” Cottia snapped, bracing herself and tugging at the dolphinback’s shoulder. He was a big man, dead weight—oh, Esca hoped he was not dead—and Cottia a small woman, well-matched to her mount Aethra, the runt of her nestmates. After some grunting and pushing that made Cottia go nearly as red as her tightly braided hair, they managed to roll him onto his back.

His tunic was half-shredded, made of a strange coarse fiber Esca had never touched before, and he had only one sandal on, laces knotted tightly around his leg—leather, Esca noticed with distaste—and a sheathed dagger at his belt. His features were square and strong, with an incongruously soft mouth, and he looked only a few years older than Esca. Cottia knelt and licked the back of her hand, then held it under the man’s nose. “He’s alive. Two of us will need to fly to Proserpinê and find a sauropod willing to come out here and bring him back.”

Before Esca could say anything shadow fell over them and Esca looked up to see Nemesa and Aethra looming over them, peering down at the man. Aethra trilled softly, something about how the dolphinback did not look so different from other humans—neither Skybax had seen a new dolphinback before—and Nemesa bent her great head, nearly the length of Esca’s own body, to take a closer look.

That was when the dolphinback woke up, with Nemesa’s beak nearly touching him, her small curious yellow eye looking down at him and her wings shading them from the sun. Despite his weak condition, he had drawn the dagger before Esca could do anything, eyes wide with fear, babbling in a language Esca didn’t understand.

" _Noli timere!_ ” Cottia shouted, flinging her arms wide. “ _Te non noscent—non nocebunt!_ "

Nemesa reared back on her hind legs, shrieking, and swept Esca away with the tough membrane of one wing, sending him sprawling to the sand. He couldn’t understand her at all when she was afraid like this, but he could see the glint of the dagger in the dolphinback’s hand, silver and wicked-sharp, and a wave of terror and anger washed through him, leaving him cold and shaking and light-headed. Nemesa’s wings were tough, but the wrong tear could do great harm, and that anyone would _threaten_ his heaven-born Nemesa, threaten her with a _weapon—_

He scrambled to his feet, heart racing, and rushed in under Nemesa’s flapping wing, dodging Aethra as she hopped clumsily backwards, away from the dolphinback. He tackled the man without thought for the blade, hardly noticing the bright slice of pain in his arm, as he struck the knife from the man’s hand and sent it spinning into the sand.

The dolphinback glared up at him, panting and thrashing, eyes wild with terror, and Esca felt grimly glad the man was so weakened, for he would never be able to hold him pinned otherwise.

“Esca, _seek peace,_ ” Cottia hissed, cutting through his panic, and behind him Nemesa gave a comforting trill, still keeping her distance. To the man, she said again, firmly, “ _Noli timere. Te non nocebunt,_ ” and then in Greek, “Don’t be afraid. They won’t harm you.”

Under Esca the man went still, calming a little, and stopped trying to pull his arms free. “You speak...Greek?” he said, his voice rasping, his accent passing strange.

“Yes, we speak Greek,” Cottia said. “Esca, let him up.”

Esca reluctantly climbed to his feet, making sure to pick up the knife so the man could not attack anyone with it again. The dolphinback had spoken Latin earlier, so he must be a Roman, and Romans had never done well in Deinotopos. Oh, Cottia’s aunt and uncle were all right—they had taken him in after his parents disappeared in the place of the tyrant lizards—but they were not the kind of Roman who thought weapons solved everything, or anything.

Cottia knelt and offered the man the flask of water from her belt. “Drink slowly, so you won’t vomit.”

His hands trembled a little as he drank, and for a moment Esca wanted to lean over and steady him, but he didn’t. The man was afraid, as dolphinbacks often were, but that was no excuse for drawing a knife on anyone.

“I’m Cottia, and these are Esca, Aethra, and Nemesa. Esca is two mothers British, and I came here from Britain on dolphinback as a child, with my aunt and uncle.” Cottia said indicated each of them in turn. “What is your name?”

“Marcus,” he said. Now that he was no longer panicking or lying there half-dead, Esca saw that he was more than a little handsome, if stern. Indeed, perhaps the handsomest man Esca had ever met. It was a shame he was a Roman. “Marcus Flavius Aquila, lately signifer of the Sixth Legion Ferrata, third cohort, second century. I was en route to our new posting in Judaea when our ship met a storm and I was swept overboard.” His accent was so thick Esca struggled to understand all the words. Marcus looked around, his eyes widening again when he looked at the curious Skybaxes, hanging back at a distance and talking nervously with each other. “Where—what is this place?”

“This is the island of Deinotopos,” Esca said. “The dolphins probably brought you in to the bay, after your ship wrecked.”

“Terrible—” Marcus paled again, and for a moment Esca thought he might be sick. “Am I—am I dead?”

Cottia gave Esca a look that said he’d better not open his mouth. “You’re not dead,” she said. “This is the place of the wondrous lizards, like Aethra and Nemesa here. We live in peace with them—well, most of them.” A glance at Esca; Cottia always felt bad at reminding him of what everyone said must have happened to his parents.

The Skybaxes, hearing their names, had moved cautiously closer. “He won’t attack you again,” Esca called, giving Marcus a dark look. The Roman had the grace to look a little ashamed.

Next to him again, Nemesa pressed the side of her beak to Esca’s shoulder, and he scratched the downy skin of her breast gently, reassuring. Nothing in their training had prepared her for this, and he knew his own agitation was only distressing her more. _Breathe deep, seek peace,_ he thought, and took a deep breath, trying to release his lingering anger for Nemesa’s sake. Skybaxes needed tranquility, a rider with clear heart and clear thoughts. She warbled, a surprisingly liquid sound, and gave a series of short trills.

“Really?” Esca asked. Nemesa chirped affirmative; she was much more forgiving than he was. “Very well.” He turned to Marcus, who had stood and was staring up at Nemesa with his eyes wide and jaw set. “Nemesa wishes to apologize for frightening you. She was only curious, and she would never hurt anyone.”

“It—she speaks?” Marcus said, still staring at Nemesa as if he were rooted to the ground.

“Of course she speaks!”

Cotta gave him another look, and Nemesa shifted uncomfortably, kicking up sand. “Skybaxes are as intelligent as we are; they have their own language, as we have ours,” Cottia said, still glaring at Esca.

“Oh.” After a moment Marcus swallowed and stepped forward a bit, towards Nemesa. He was clearly still afraid, but he did not let it hold him back. “Lady, I repent my rudeness.”

Nemesa tilted her head to one side to get a better look at him, and then bent her head low. _I like him,_ she said to Esca. _He has a brave heart._

“She likes,” Esca said, almost choking on the words. Nemesa was not ordinarily so friendly to strangers, and still he did not understand how she could so quickly forgive a man who had threatened her with a weapon. “She likes being scratched behind her head, where she cannot reach herself.”

He did not think Marcus would dare, but the Roman tentatively stretched out a hand, just barely brushing Nemesa’s down, and then let it settle on her neck. “Oh.” A look of wonder suffused his stern features, transforming them to something kind and beautiful as his fear melted away. He slowly ran his fingers through the down, scratching behind Nemesa’s crest. “You’re _soft._ ”

Nemesa hummed smugly, tipping her head forward so Marcus could reach around the back better, closing her eyes in contentment. Esca’s arm stung now where Marcus had cut him earlier, but watching them he soon forgot the pain entirely. For once, for once in his life, Esca had eyes for someone other than Nemesa, and he was lost.

  


"Esca, Skybax Rider," by [Motetus](http://motetus.livejournal.com/95596.html)

**Author's Note:**

> And now, the ridiculously long author’s notes (I really like pterosaurs, okay? And who am I kidding, it's my thing).
> 
> ### Fusion Notes
> 
> In the fusion process, I quickly realized that _Dinotopia_ canon doesn’t make a lot of sense on close examination, so I decided to change some things for the sake of the story and not worry about it too much.
> 
> 1\. Dinotopian doesn’t make much sense to me; you don’t organically get a new language by pasting together a ton of others. So I’m positing Greek as one of the common human languages in the 2nd century, probably a Dinotopian-flavored dialect of Attic Greek. After all, the dinosaurs seem _terribly_ fond of Greco-Roman architecture for some reason, and it would help explain all those Greek-derived dinosaur names. Conveniently, this means Marcus can more or less communicate with most people, although he speaks either schoolboy Attic or Koine and hence has a strong accent relative to the average Dinotopian, recent Greek-speaking arrivals aside.
> 
> 2\. The first _Dinotopia_ book explicitly asserts that Skybaxes can’t understand humans, and uses a lot of language about “control” before it switches to the concept of earning their respect. This doesn’t make sense to me--I’m sure Skybaxes have their own language, and I see no reason humans couldn’t learn to understand them and v.v., even if they can’t shape the sounds of each other’s languages. Anyway, most of _Dinotopia_ fandom seems to think Skybaxes and humans can learn to understand each other’s languages well enough for conversations.
> 
> 3\. The appeal of the _Dinotopia_ books is in the art, not the tension of the story, and so they can afford to be a pleasant stroll through a happy dinosaur-human utopia (there are, however, some implications in canon that Dinotopia has not always been quite so pacifist as it is by the 1860s). Unfortunately, I do not have gorgeous art, so slightly de-utopifying it a little bit seems a necessity. Poor Esca probably gets reminded to “Breathe deep, seek peace,” a _lot_.
> 
> All the same, I tried to keep as many of the sensibilities of Dinotopia as I could—the deep bond between Skybax and rider, the generally peaceful, vegetarian/vegan society, the horror of weapons, the way Skybaxes can sense fear and require tranquility in a rider (poor Esca; it is a struggle), and so on.
> 
> ### Pterosaur Notes
> 
> When James Gurney wrote _Dinotopia,_ we knew a lot less about probable modes of giant pterosaur locomotion, terrestrial and aerial. Too, I’m...not convinced by how he’s distributed flesh and structured the wings (I think he paints necks too thin and far too flexible--giant azhdarchids had long, inflexible neck vertebrae--and doesn’t put enough muscle on the hind legs or define the shape of the body beyond a lump; also, the terrestrial poses he uses are weird and current thought suggests the wing membrane attaches down the side of the body and to the hind legs), and it’s quite likely that _Quetzalcoatlus_ has insulatory down (true, _Q. skybax_ is a fictional species, but lots of pterosaurs had down-like integument--it gets cold up in the sky). So physically, and this mostly manifests here in the flight dynamics and how the Skybaxes land and move about terrestrially, I’ve tweaked my Skybaxes a little to bring them more in line with current research, although I left them as skim-feeders (probably inaccurate) because in Dinotopia, obligate carnivores who eat creatures other than fish don’t get to hang out in the utopia part of the island.
> 
> Attempting to research this story convinced me more firmly than ever that _Quetzalcoatlus_ (if it is a valid taxon) and giant azhdarchid pterosaurs in general are some of the most awesome (in all senses of the word) animals ever to live. In case you were in any doubt. If anyone is interested, the pterosaur papers I read while writing this were “[On the Size and Flight Diversity of Giant Pterosaurs, the Use of Birds as Pterosaur Analogues and Comments on Pterosaur Flightlessness](http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013982)” (Witton and Habib, 2010) and “[A Reappraisal of Azhdarchid Pterosaur Functional Morphology and Paleoecology](http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002271)” (Witton and Naish, 2008), both of which are rather technical but fascinating, if you like pterosaurs.
> 
> ### Language Notes
> 
> Nemesa is my attempt at a feminine form of the genitive of 'sky, heaven,' _nemesos_ , so basically “of heaven” in Brittonic; Aethra is the feminine form of “aether”. They seemed like reasonable Skybax names.
> 
> Cottia is rusty on her Latin. _Noli timere! Te non noscent—non nocebunt!_ means “Don’t be afraid! They won’t know--won’t harm--you!” and should have a _tibi_ in front of the _non nocebunt_.
> 
> The Greek word _deinos_ can mean "terrible" or "wonderful," among other things.


End file.
